We have an unattended kiosk at a local sports arena that currently runs a hardened Linux distribution from a CD-ROM ISO. The project that produced the distribution is no longer active -- in fact, it disappeared from the internet.

What I'm looking for is a Linux kiosk distribution which:

Boots from CD (no hard drive installation)

Only runs a web browser

Restarts the web browser automatically when closed (or after a time-out period)

5 Answers
5

I believe you need "gdm" with auto-login and ctrl-alt-backspace disabled.

Choose "matchbox" as a window-manager: it was designed for kiosk use. It's capable of maximizing windows to fullscreen (while dialogs still look nice). It also consumes little resources, and has an on-screen keyboard.

Use "xautolock" to reset browser on inactivity period.

If you're still looking for a distribution, try WebConverger. I saw it in action: a really nice pick! Alas, is shareware :(

Thanks Tync! This is the distribution that I chose for the project, though I chose it late last week. For anyone who needs an out-of-the-box bootable CDROM kiosk, WebConverger is easy to use, and (as of this posting) immune to the kiosk attack tools. Even though WebConverger has a commercial solution, and I highly recommend it if you need commercial support, the basic model is freeware.
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JoeSep 8 '09 at 23:15